This week the Madden tourney came a day early due to the fact that the Sports Inferno guys had some other obligations this week. The Michgan-Michigan State game is this weekend and they are all over the place during the week. So, the turnout was a little lighter last night, the prize was an autographed Jerry Rice magazine, and it appeared that my chances of winning were looking good. That was until I actually picked up the controller and started playing.
The first game pitted the Colts against the Steelers. I won the coin toss and kicked. I figured that I would be able to eat up the Colts D with some nice runs up the gut and use up some of the clock. Well, the Colts came out and took forever to call plays and got absolutely nothing going on offense and ended up having to punt. Upon receiving the punt Randle El decides to drop the damn ball and the Colts recover inside Steelers territory. The Steelers defense held tight, though, and kept the Colts from scoring any points and just like that, the first half was over. I receive the 3 rd Quarter kickoff and bring it out to about the 25-yard line or so and I am ready for Robanger and Co. to get this offense going against the putrid Colts D. Well, this guy did nothing but bring the house on every play and for some reason, I couldn't do a thing about it. If I ran, I was stuffed, if I dropped back to pass, I was sacked, and the sad part is that I knew where it was coming from. The CB covering my slot receiver was coming leaving Randle El or Ward wide open, but I couldn't get the ball to them, I didn't have the time. So, after a couple of dismal possessions, Manning hits Harrison on some deep route (typical Steelers DB play) and gets to within FG range. Vanderjagt splits the uprights and that was pretty much it for me for the night. First round KO for Coach Bangpow and the Steelers, or was it??
Since the tournament wasn't on it's regular night, there wasn't a full rack of players. Now there happened to be a second round Bye for one of the brackets because they were two people short. So, I went to report the results of my game to the guy that keeps track of the brackets and he tells me about this Bye and says, “You lost already? Well, get ready because your playing again”, or something to that effect. I was put into the second round to play the guy who was supposed to have the Bye.
New life for the Steelers!
For this game it was the Steelers vs. the Falcons. I let the guy chose his team first because he actually won his first round game and he picked the Falcons. Going into the game I was thinking about using Vick and Co. because the Steelers weren't getting it done, but he got to pick first and the rest is history. Another interesting side note on this game, the guy using the Falcons happened to be the brother of the guy I lost to in the first round. So, guess what I saw in this game?? The Falcons bringing the house while I couldn't do a damn thing about it. Yay! So, after both offenses don't do a damn thing, the game goes into OT and this where things get interesting. Right after we start OT, the guy overseeing the tournament tells us that if we are still tied at then end of the game, the person with the most total yards wins the game. So, I pause the game and see that my offensive yards are greater than the Falcons so I proceed to just pound the rock and run the clock down. Well, that turned out to be a bad idea. I was winning the game on OFFENSIVE yards, but the game was decided on TOTAL YARDS, which includes penalties and special teams. That being said, I lost the game based on a 5-yard Delay of Game penalty and a kick return! Friggin' sweet! What's even better is that I saw the guy in the bathroom that made up the rule and he told me that what he really meant was that the team with the most OFEENSIVE yards wins the game, but he said TOTAL yards and had to stand by what came out of his mouth. I understood, though, and it really shouldn't have come down to that, I should've played better and technically I shouldn't have been playing that second game anyway. I finished 0-2 in the tournament and quite frankly, I suck!
I did get a little enjoyment last night, though. One of the hosts of the Sports Inferno, Mike Valenti, has started competing in the tournament for the last couple of weeks. If I would've beaten the Falcons, I would've had to play him. Mike seems to be a lot like us on here, likes to play straight up ‘ball, likes to scheme his way to victories, and likes to counter cheese with real football, but you can only do so much playing on 1-minute quarters. Anyway, last night he came up against the guy that likes run the hurry up and throw to Gates on the flag route all day long. I've noticed that he only really runs the hurry up when he plays Mike; he's done it before against him and ended up beating Mike a couple weeks back. So, last night was a little rematch from the prior ass whoopin' that Mike had received. But this time it was in the Finals and both competitors were battle tested and battle ready. So, it was the Chargers vs. the Patriots for this one. And let me say that the Chargers seemed a bit off for this game. Brees was getting the ball a little too late to Gates and the ball was either knocked away or Gates would catch the ball out of bounds. Then, if he tried throwing underneath to LT, he would be out of bounds, too. Plus, I'm sure it didn't hurt that the Patriots were on the other side of the ball. It was a back and forth game, while every possession was of the utmost importance. It was a story of hard yards for that game, my friends, and both competitors were heated. But when the dust settled and when it was all said and done, the host of the show won the whole dang thing, beating the Chargers while stopping their one play. He didn't keep the prize or anything, he just game to the guy he beat. Although, next week I expect a different strategy out of both of those guys.
All I gotta say that last night was an aberration on many levels and I know that I better show up a little more prepared than I was last night. I mean, we can't have the host of the show coming in and showing us up!
Welp, until next week, I leave you with this quote by yours truly…
“Championship teams lose games once in awhile…and sometimes two in a row!”
